The shipbuilder and shipowner, was born on 18 January 1823 in Blyth, Northumberland, Gray invested his spare capital in ships, building his fortune 'in shop and by ship' as his father had done and in some dozen years, his activities resulted in William Gray & Co. .
The yard prospered and in 1878 it achieved the distinction of launching the largest tonnage of any shipyard in the world, a feat to be repeated on a number of occasions. The ships were largely medium-size cargo steamers of the well-decked type built in the Hartlepools. However, as demand for oil tankers developed the firm secured a share of that market, building the Bakuin (1886), the first tanker for a British owner, and the Murex (1892), the first tanker to navigate the Suez Canal.